Back It Up or Misery

Well it happened again; just when I thought it wouldn’t. Not able to boot-up: a failed hard drive or maybe something more nefarious- a lousy virus. I was lulled into complacency and hadn’t done a backup in a loooooooooong time.

My Dell laptop is nearly five years old and has held up better than anything prior. I think I’ve owned a half dozen other laptops over the years (all other makes). I skipped the first model offered by my business, which was a laptop with no hard drive. Yes, that’s right a laptop run with real bendable floppy disks. But as soon as hard drives and DOS were out I was on board and I faithfully backed up everything…until this last stalwart convinced me it was invincible.

I was ready to purchase today, but as I explained what happened to the technician he highly suspected a virus lodged in my BIOS (or whatever) that is keeping my computer from recognizing the hard drive. The setup mode shows all the hardware found but lists the hard drive as ‘none’. And all of this with constant virus protection and automatic downloads and updates. In fact the automatic virus scan had been done just hours before.

If my hard drive is intact and salvageable that will be a miracle. Actually, my reaction to this event has been a miracle as I’ve taken it remarkably in stride. A few years ago this would have caused a greater emotional response. Fortunately I have my wife’s school laptop available, but everything is different. Where are my Feeds?…my Favorites?…all gone. Thankfully another post is ‘scheduled’ on Blogger to ‘post itself’ soon…and all my email is saved too. The spirit of detachment…put everything on someone else’s server or hard drive…I’m beginning to appreciate having stuff reside somewhere out there…wherever out there is.

So I confess I’m a ‘backup’ sinner and I’ll have to pay the price. For my penance I’m admonishing you to back up your important files.

1 comment:

Suz said...

You've heard this one?

Jesus and Satan have an argument as to who is the better programmer. This goes on for a few hours until they come to an agreement to hold a contest, with God the Father as the judge.

They set themselves before their computers and begin. They are given the task, and began to type furiously, lines of code streaming up the screen for several hours straight. Seconds before the end of the competition, a bolt of lightning strikes, taking out the electricity. Moments later, the power is restored, and God announces that the contest is over.

He asks Satan to show what he has come up with. Satan indignantly protests, "I have nothing! I lost it all when the power went out." "Very well, then," says God, "let us see if Jesus fared any better."Jesus enters a command and the screen comes to life with a vivid display, the voices of an angelic choir pour forth from the speakers. Satan is astonished.

He stutters, "B-b-but how? I lost everything, yet Jesus' program is intact! How did he do it?"

God chuckles, "Satan, when are you going to learn ...Jesus saves!"